EU politicos bloodied and blooded in Brussels elections

Municipal elections were held in Belgium on Sunday (8 October) and plenty of EU politicos were involved.

Joeri Hamvas, assistant to Dutch Social Democrat MEP Edith Mastenbroek, failed to get elected for the Flemish Socialists in Brussels city.

Guillaume Durand of the European Policy Centre came too far down the list in Brussels city.

Ans Persoons of the Brussels-EU liaison office narrowly missed (by one vote) a seat in Ixelles on the Socialist mayor’s list.

But Jutta Buyse of The Centre, a “think-do tank”, was elected as a councillor in Forest after a commune employee, also on the Socialist list, did not take up her place. She narrowly missed becoming councillor for Flemish affairs, which post went to former MEP and Groen candidate Lukas van der Taelen.

Jos Bertrand, who works for the Socialist group in the European Parliament, won a place in Watermael-Boitsfort.

Monica Frassoni, MEP for Italy and co-president of the Parliament’s Green/European Free Alliance group, was on the Ecolo list in Schaerbeek but only at number 21. The party lost nine seats, leaving them with just six, so she was never in danger of being elected.

There is something splendidly parochial about the state-aid investigation launched last week by the European Commission’s competition department into JC Decaux, a French advertising company. The question …